The FSF has released the third draft of the revised third version of the GNU General Public License. Some of the changes in the new draft, such as the increased clarification and legal language, or the housekeeping changes that reflect new aspects of the license are likely to be accepted. However, the license also includes a new approach to the controversial issue of lock-down technologies as well as more explicit language about patents, including language designed to prevent a re-occurrence of agreements such as the one that Novell entered into with Microsoft - all of which is apt to kindle heated debate as the revision process enters its final stages after fifteen months of intensive work.

In the end, it will likely not prevent entities doing things of which RMS does not approve.

These static clauses that are added as reactions to specific events are doomed to failure.

One would not write code like that. Much better to point to a table which can be dynamically updated.

He really might as well be honest and include a clause that indicates that "This license grants you these rights until such time as your company name appears on the list at http://gplv3.fsf.org/blacklist.html".

But the Tivo/DRM and Novell patent deal (in which companies like Red Hat and IBM are attacked by Novell's patent deal that only applies to it and MS's customers, making software unfree) are also attacks against the license AND those freedoms, so of course it addresses those concepts.

Also, the GPL 'feature' that Novell/Microsoft exploited is being classed as a bug in the GPLv2.
This new clause (11?) in the GPLv3 can be seen as a bugfix.

Luckily for everyone, software gets patched when bugs are found. The alternative that you are suggesting is some form on online-vtable lookup. This may work for SAAS and online applications. But for most software, performance and common-sense win.

I see your point about reacting to unforeseen loopholes. It sucks that it has to be this way, but it does. The law is about enforcing behavior in a consistent manner. When new behaviors emerge, new laws have to be created.

Once upon a time, the federal income tax in the U.S. was a fairly simple system. But people kept finding ways to outsmart the system, and the tax code expanded to the point of absurdity. But a flat tax isn't the answer, and neither is sending a tax agent door to door to individually assess tax rates based on what kind of car you drive, how big your TV is, or where you go for vacation.

The world is getting more and more complex because the inner workings of the Machine are getting more and more accessible to the public. Everyone wants to be "on the inside," and so thinking up new ways to keep the miscreants out is a full-time job for the insiders. Think of the FSF as free software insiders. They see their world becoming more and more accessible, and expensive IP lawyers are starting to think about how one could legally exploit free software. What was ingenious 15 years ago is now woefully unprepared.

People seem to think that all of these amazing technological and social advances will make our lives simpler and easier. My grandparents might have had to walk to work in the snow, uphills both ways, but we have to navigate a world where if you do what's right, you get screwed by people who do what's legal.

I'm a very independent person. I like to figure things out for myself. But I know when I'm outmatched. One of the first things I did when I started my first real job was make appointments with a few financial planners and a few lawyers. Unless you live and breathe the loopholes and implications of the law, you're gunna get screwed. If you want to actually do something productive and earn a living, then you'll lose to the people that sit around and think about how to steal the shirt off your back and then sue you for wearing it in the first place.

Yes, we live in a ridiculously complicated world. If that doesn't make you think, "good, that makes it easier to exploit people," then you need to find help.

One would not write code like that.

If you had my job, you would chuckle at this statement. Every so often there's another inconceivable corner case that doesn't even seem obvious in hindsight. All you can do is sigh, curse the complexity, and drop the fix. "If the following seemingly impossible condition exists..."